When the cage door closes, are you there to fight or are you there to run and hide? Some fighters choose what I call run-fu and evade and kill the clock to survive from bell to bell. We all hate them. Some choose to warm up, ease&n…
When the cage door closes, are you there to fight or are you there to run and hide? Some fighters choose what I call run-fu and evade and kill the clock to survive from bell to bell. We all hate them. Some choose to warm up, ease their way into the battle and conserve for spurts of fury, and some come full tilt, all out all the time and try to break the cardio and will of the opponent.
That’s the beauty of mixed martial arts. Anything can happen at anytime, and you have to be ready for all that comes at you when the bell rings to get it on.
We all love the most aggressive fighters. The guys that come out meet up with the guy and plant feet and throw, and the guys who come out at 100 miles and hour and keep the punches, kicks and assault coming whether they are eating shots or not; these are the warriors we love.
Here are the 25 Most Aggressive Fighters In MMA History
I’ll say it once again: you gotta love the UFC and the way they give fans free fights. This Sunday, UFC on Versus 4 goes down and features a solid card of fighters going at it with heavy implications all around. The importance of fights for guys like T…
I’ll say it once again: you gotta love the UFC and the way they give fans free fights. This Sunday, UFC on Versus 4 goes down and features a solid card of fighters going at it with heavy implications all around.
The importance of fights for guys like Tyson Griffin, who is making his featherweight debut vs. Manny Gamburyan cannot be understated. How about strikers Cheick Kongo and Pat Barry—will they deliver a slobber knocker of a knockout that the fans so expected out of Junior Dos Santos vs. Shane Carwin?
There are some intriguing fights on this card in every division, and I look forward to seeing the strategic, game-within-the-game moments of all of these match-ups. What detail will lead to one fighter’s victory vs. one fighter’s fall? Let’s take a look and zoom in on five things to look for in the fights this weekend.
5. Will the real Joe Lauzon re-emerge and dominate a lesser opponent?
Look closely on Sunday night to see if we will get a tentative, cautious fighter in Joe Lauzon, or if we get the pressing, blitzing, dominant Joe that we have been blessed to witness at times in his career. It has been an up and down couple of years for Lauzon, and he needs to get back on track with a win worthy of some noise for J-Lau.
In my opinion, Curt Warburton is outmatched in this fight both in skill and experience, but Joe has got to fight desperate, and show a renewed pension for unleashing hell when he gets in that cage.
4. Does Size Matter For Tyson Griffin?
Tyson Griffin shot on to the mixed martial arts scene as a lightweight with incredible cardio and dexterity, blasting through his first few fights early in his UFC career. Then he started to come up against some of the big boys of the division and it soon became apparent that he was going to forever struggle to hold off the elite guys at the 155 pound range.
Sunday night he moves down to 145 pounds, and he gets a rude welcome with top contender Manny Gamburyan. Watch closely in this fight to see if Griffin can impose his will on Manny, who is one of the strongest men in the division. I look for this fight to be in close quarters and hopefully Griffin can re-emerge a contender after the fight.
3. Who has the better striking, Mitrione or Morecraft?
I look for this fight to settle two scores where these two fighters are concerned on Sunday. The first score to settle is for these two to start this fight in stand-and-bang mode and see who has the better, more technical and powerful striking. Both of these guys like to cut it up and be funny characters at times and they have both gained a following doing so.
Settling the striking score will certainly settle the second score for me, as I want to see which one of these two boisterous heavyweights is ready for a large step up the next time they step in the cage.
2. Is It Near The End For Cheick Kongo?
I used to get frustrated with Cheick Kongo’s repeated failure to develop a ground game, it seemed such a waste for such a talented, sculpted fighter to get beaten so easily in one aspect of the game. Recently, I have been more frustrated with a certain lack of fire and heart in Kongo’s game. Although his losses have come to legitimate guys in the division, I am always left wanting more from him when the key moment of the fight arrives.
Pat Barry will stand in your face, fire shots and test your will to be there. If Kongo can stand and trade and not flinch an inch against Barry, it will go a long way in telling us all if we should consider Kongo a relevant enough fighter to continue to get interesting fights. He may try to shoot and submit, which is fine and may be smart, but if he retreats and starts to dance, will will know right away, he is fighter looking to survive instead of thrive and I wish him well in the future.
1. Will Nate Marquardt be technical and powerful enough to stop Rick Story?
As he was getting ready for Thiago Alves a month ago, I heard Rick Story say that he was going to come in come hard and come often, and that he did, to my surprise, against Alves, stealing the win in the process. Thiago Alves’ bread and butter was powerful Muay Thai striking, and Story bulldozed straight in through it with good set ups and brute timing.
Marquardt is coming down from 185 pounds and is banking on the fact that his size and power shots will be enough to deter and ultimately stop the train that has become Rick Story. I personally feel like Nate is a bit more technically sound in his approach than Thiago, so he will land punches. Will his punches be powerful enough at 170 pounds to get the job done and stop Story in his tracks? I am saying yes, and Nate will score a decisive win that sees a bloody Story at the end
Dwight Wakabayashi is a Feature Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA.
A dirty player inside the cage or a loudmouth on the mic outside of it. A man with a rap sheet or a few run-ins with the law or a guy you just plain love to hate.What makes a controversial fighter in MMA today? It is all those things mentioned and more…
A dirty player inside the cage or a loudmouth on the mic outside of it. A man with a rap sheet or a few run-ins with the law or a guy you just plain love to hate.
What makes a controversial fighter in MMA today? It is all those things mentioned and more and when you can mix and match a little bit of each, then you’ve really had a Hall of Fame career to be proud of.
With that, let’s take a look at the 10 most controversial fighters in MMA today.
It’s the half-way point of the calendar year and that means the half-way point in the UFC 2011 schedule.There have been eleven UFC events to date, and it is not slowing down as we roll into the heart of summer. Fight fans are certainly gettin…
It’s the half-way point of the calendar year and that means the half-way point in the UFC 2011 schedule.
There have been eleven UFC events to date, and it is not slowing down as we roll into the heart of summer. Fight fans are certainly getting our fill, and we can’t complain about much in regards to the top promotion in the game, the UFC.
Top-ten lists are usually reserved for full, year-end recaps, so with that in mind I have made a top-five of UFC fights so far in 2011. I have had trouble keeping up with all of the fights in every promotion, and there have been some great local fights already that have taken place in my neighborhood—Parisyan vs Ford and Horodecki vs. Castillo, come quickly to mind.
The dust has settled for me and UFC 131 was a large success in Vancouver over the past seven days. When I touched down on the beautiful place I called home for five or so years in my college days the city was a buzz with Stanley Cup fever. It was there…
The dust has settled for me and UFC 131 was a large success in Vancouver over the past seven days. When I touched down on the beautiful place I called home for five or so years in my college days the city was a buzz with Stanley Cup fever. It was there in the air and with flags draped all over cars and the city. I was envious. I live in Toronto and I am a Leaf fan, need I say more? I knew my friends who are Canuck fans would be boasting and strutting and walking the walk.
I was there to bask in the vibe for a week, visit my dad, show my girlfriend the sights and cover UFC 131. Not a bad week in my opinion. I was pumped up for the event but I quickly realized that the city was pre-occupied and it didn’t have the lust and fury for this event that Toronto had in April. You really can’t compare the two because the one in Toronto was the city’s first but it was clear the people of Vancouver had other things on their minds.
As the days went by and the events leading up were held the fans did come out and the buzz close to the event was certainly there. Here are some highlights from the week.
I have shaken a lot of fighters hands over the years, at various events and shows, but this was the first time a fighters hand and grip were something to comment on. Shane Carwin has got some set of mitts on him. I know that is no secret with his oversized gloves and all but his hand crushed mine. He was no match for JDS, and watching that fight was pure poetry. I’ve never seen such a big man like JDS stick and move and shuck and jive like a middle or welterweight boxer. And people say boxing is dead. You want to see world class boxing, watch MMA and specifically JDS.
Time to eat some crow as I was giving it to the UFC match makers for having Jon Olav Einemo vs. Dave Herman on the main card of the event and having Canadian Krzystof “The Polish Experiment” Soszynski far down on the card comparatively. Well, the KSOS-Massenzio fight was a tough one to watch, and the Einemo-Herman fight was named “Fight of The Night” so I was wrong on that one.
The press conference kicked off with some yahoo at the back of Robson Square yelling out a question and comments about an incident that happened the last time the UFC was there. It’s not even worth mention here because it had nothing to do with the UFC, but I wanted to comment on how they handled it, Dana White and the UFC Press team were calm and cool, and they know how to run a first class event
Watching the fights ringside was again an awesome experience and a highlight was obviously a Sam Stout knockout for Team Adrenaline, my favorite team of fighters. Mark Hominick and Chris Horodecki were on hand during the week to support Stout, and they held a fundraiser with coach Shawn Tompkins to raise money in support of a center for abused women in Vancouver. These guys are the best of the best inside and outside the cage.
Dwight Wakabayashi is a Feature Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA
The weigh-ins for UFC 131 took place at the beautiful Jack Poole Plaza on the harbour front of Vancouver this afternoon and all the fighters on the card made weight as they were supposed to. Joe Rogan was on hand to do the honors and there we…
The weigh-ins for UFC 131 took place at the beautiful Jack Poole Plaza on the harbour front of Vancouver this afternoon and all the fighters on the card made weight as they were supposed to. Joe Rogan was on hand to do the honors and there were no real fireworks or staredowns to speak of with the exception of Kenny Florian coming in as the advertised villain, wearing a Boston Bruins jersey.
He was greeted by intense boos from approximately a couple thousand fans on hand and on the flip side, opponent Diego Nunes showed a bit of pizazz by wearing a Canucks jersey and firing off a flurry of punches as the fans cheered in delight.
That fight is not going to be a cake walk for Florian by any means.
Jack Poole Plaza is where the 2010 Winter Olympic cauldron stands and it was a pleasure to soak it all in with that structure standing tall behind.
In the hours leading up to the weigh-ins the fans were treated with a UFC Fight Club Q&A session with the always entertaining Stephan “The American Psycho” Bonnar and UFC play-by-play man Mike Goldberg.
Bonnar was a comedian from the get-go and he ended up giving the fans the shirt off his back—literally, as he ran out of the stack of T-shirts he had brought with him.
The highlight of the hour, and there were many with Bonnar, came when the topic of Josh Koscheck and his reported lawsuit against him came up. He was a good sport and in the midst of the discussion someone tossed an “Ultimate Fighter: Team Koscheck” shirt on stage, to which he promptly picked it up and wiped his blue-jeaned ass with it.
The crowd roared in approval. The irony came later when Bonnar ran out of t-shiorts to give out to the fans who were requesting them. Some bold fan asked Bonnar if they could have the one he was wearing so he gave it to her straight off his back.
As he sat there shirtless feeling awkward, he had no choice but to grab Koscheck’s shirt again and put it on.
The show ended with the fans gathered around him while he ripped it off to shreds in Hulk Hogan like fashion.
Other highlights included him telling about when he fought Lyoto Machida in Brazil and took a boat deep in to the Amazon to the event, where he said he felt like he was in “Enter the Dragon,” and realized he was the poor schmuck fighting Bruce Lee, and him suggesting an “Ultimate Fighter All Stars” show, although he stated he never gets what he wants in the UFC.
